(Photo by Flickr user Yuri Samoilov, used under a Creative Commons license)

When a company is among the earliest to use a technology, there’s not always a clear-cut path for standing out in a market on one’s own. That’s where partnerships can come in. Working together can help raise the profile for everyone.

One such recent example locally comes from serverless security startup Protego. The Baltimore startup is getting attention after a $2 million seed round. CEO Tsion Gonen points out the promise of serverless computing, a form of cloud computing in which businesses pay for resources used rather than space. There are also security risks, and that’s where Protego’s platform is looking to come in.

But to grow the company is looking to spread its reach, and that’s where partnerships come in. Recently, Protego said it inked such a partnership with Los Angeles–based Mode2, a cloud native solutions firm that helps other companies use serverless computing. With the partnership, Protego will be providing its security services for Mode2’s U.S. customers hosting serverless environments on Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure.

While in some cases competition could be part of the equation for considering a partnership, in this case it is complementary. Gonen said Mode2 “one of the very few serverless tour guides around,” and working together will help ensure security is a part of that path.

“This is a great first step as part of our overall business approach. We see establishing partnerships with the key players in the serverless ecoystem as a critical part of establishing our position as leaders in this space,” Gonen said via email. “Mode2 is one of the only pure play serverless consulting groups and is a pioneer in this space. They bring to the table a wealth of existing customer relationships that will look to us as partners to help with security.”